Gackt

Yep noticed it on a number of pages as soon as the last cosmetic facelift was done by them. Maybe will be a new mascot.. you'll be greeted by a someone dressed up in a squirrel costume on visiting GSHQ? I am sure you'll have some other more interesting things to ask them about when you visit I know I would if I was ever to.

Well done to those who have chosen to go for it and have kept it up. I am not doing. I have only found a few caches this month so far, but almost all of them have been really good ones, including a proper night cache, a few new Below Aboves, and a hide which was something quite different I am more than happy with what I have achieved even though I don't have many profile souvenirs to show off.

Crowdpleaser1, until you do purchase a dedicated GPSr, to get around phone signal problems, you can import pocket queries straight into that app you are using at the moment. From there just click on 'Stored' and unless you sort the caches into any other order the ones at the top of the list will be your closest. Just tap on a cache, then the compass like you have been doing, and off you go. No phone signal will still hamper the live maps though. You will need premium membership to create pocket queries.

Here's a photo of one critter, but looks like there will soon be many more little critters, taken near Birdlip Walk (GCRCZH) a few weeks ago: And here is a photo taken today at Wroughton Alps (GC2YHF1). The cache container had been placed in a bag, and it had gathered some water and a family of earwigs. Felt a bit like a bushtucker trial to retrieve the container from the bag:

Same here. For myself 6 days is my longest on this site, and two of those finds I deliberately went out about 11pm so that I could find one each side of midnight. After doing that I thought 'this is just daft' and gave up the streak. I'm quite good at doing streaks of non-caching days, I've managed a 27 day streak of that variety

So that the OP has the info there to help them decide, I feel it is important to add to my comments about my phone battery that I have not tested it for this length of time. I compared to my own GPSr which is an old one, but runs good quality batteries. Mine takes 2x AA, and will last about 24hrs max before changing, and a bit less than that when I use re-chargables. I am back to occasional caching at the moment, but I did do a days caching with quite a few caches to try it out not too long ago, my note on it can be found in THIS THREAD. If the battery consumption carried on at the same rate until total discharge, it would look to be comparable to your Etrex. I have not tried this though, and it is possible that there may be a faster drop off of battery level as it discharges further. It is however looking to be performing much better than iPhones mentioned here. Definitely this If I was to drop my phone in water or on a rock it's pretty safe to say I would have an unhappy moment. Whilst I am pretty much converted to using a phone now, I will not be getting rid of my dedicated GPSr.

Contrary to the comments made about GPSr battery life being better than a phone's, I am finding the battery life of my phone is far superior to that of my GPSr. I think it depends on what phone you are using, and how you have it set up, e.g. how many apps running, the brightness setting of your display etc. My phone is an android Sony Xperia Miro running a non-official caching app. Via internet I have maps, and can download individual cache details, or for large quantities of caches I can create a PQ and download it straight into the app. I am almost totally converted from using a dedicated GPSr to a phone. I rarely get the GPSr out of my backpack for standard caching now. That may change in the middle of winter, the GPSr is more rugged.

Hi Martin. I think the forum just mentioned above is a bit dead now, but as well as FB, it's worth checking out cacheface.com. I know there is a group for Dorset on there, I don't know if there is one specifically for Cornwall yet but you could always start one. Welcome to the addiction

*clicks the virtual 'like' button*

Another "depends" from me. Lots of scenarios can effect how long I look, some mentioned already. I have to say that for the most part if I am going out specifically to look for one particular cache, I will spend a lot longer looking for it before giving up than I would do if I was walking a very long circular with caches along the route. I am not numbers hungry so if I miss some on a circular I not usually too bothered. Saying that, if I have only had the briefest of looks and feel I could looked a lot longer, than I will post a note to say that, not a DNF. I think the longest I have looked for one particular cache was about an hour, and only because I wanted to try to get the FTF. I failed to find, and yes I did post a DNF.

Not as far as I know but Herefordshire falls in West Midlands area so try West Mids Ceocaching facebook group: My link CacheWalker is also worth checking out with some members from that area.

I'm probably the only one, but I didn't actually know that the Commonwealth Games were being played there next year, so thanks for that. Hopefully caches will not need to be disabled for this as they were for the Olympics. It might be worth trying to find out before making plans.

If it's a good walk you are after with plenty of caches the new Great Cotswold Walk power trail might be for you? The trail is more about the walk than the quality of the cache hides, but even though it's a long one, the terrain is fairly easy going. There's 130 caches in the whole series, plus a couple of extras added just after launch to link the loops (there's three loops if you want to break the whole thing down a bit). Plus a few other older caches which can be taken in at the same time. The series has been planned to start and finish from the village of Quenington, near Cirencester. Buses often run through Cirencester from out of the area, including National Express ones. The hardest part to plan for you would be to get from Ciren to Quenington or Fairford, but I am sure a local cacher could help you out with that bit of the journey if you asked, I would if I happened to be about. Edited to say: Just saw your post sparklefingers, lol, am another cacher near Swindon

I had a Sony Xperia Miro for Christmas. I have only used it for occasional caching until recently. A week ago I thought I would give it a good try to see how well it would perform compared to my old GPSr. It did rather well. I downloaded a PQ of a fairly new local power trail to the phone which is running a non-official caching app, then charged the phone battery right up. I left the house about 9.30am and got home about 5pm. I had the app running continuously. I found 60 of the 62 caches I looked for. Later on I learned that one of the DNFs was because the cache was actually missing. So the GPSr accuracy can't be too bad on the phone. Most of the caches were out in the open, but the few under the trees weren't a problem for the phone, it seems to keep a signal just as well as my GPSr. As well as looking for those caches, I stopped a couple of times to take some photos for another location based game. I had a few phone calls from my better half. I stopped to check my emails a couple of times. And at one little tunnel I passed I wiggled inside and used the led light on the phone to light my way. The phone was still on 81% battery charge by the time I got home. Admittedly the phone is not old and has not had a great deal of use, but to me that looked to be quite low battery consumption. Don't know how it would stand up to a hike in winter, but for a relatively cheap android phone for fair weather caching I would recommend.

We have some cracking underground caches in the south west around the area of the Below Aboves, already noted by Simply Paul. *geocass* has a well put together book mark list of these types of caches in the UK, which can be found HERE. You can create a pocket query with that and display on your the map for easy viewing of where in the country the listed caches are. Using that I can see there's one called At the bunker in the NE, though may not be close enough for you.

I had overlooked that possibility, may be due to the fact I have never even looked at Twitter never mind have an account. Please accept my apologies. No need to apologise, I understand how it may have been misconstrued . On facebook I could have clicked 'like' for this post and you would have known I liked what you said without having to do another message. On our local Cotswold Caching forum you can do just that, click to 'like' posts. You can also set set status messages, add people as friends, and follow people etc if you like that sort of thing.. or don't, if you don't. Maybe this forum here would be more popular if it had a bit of work done to it to bring it up to date a bit more? Maybe.

I lurk here often, and post occasionally. Nothing's changed there. I also frequent the couple of local forums daily. I deleted my FB account a few years ago about the time I started caching, for personal reasons, and also to give me an added boost to get away from computer screens and get outdoors. I'm still behind a screen too much of the day now IMO, so I won't sign up again. I do use twitter, it's a useful tool. I also have a cacheface.com account, which is kind of a FB clone but just for geocaching.

It does get better after the first couple of minutes but even better still 20 minutes in after the general chatter to the first interview. I could never host one of these podcasts, I don't talk that much. If I did one it would only last about five minutes If I ever spot a few adults shouting "train" at trains passing by, I'll know who you are

Not that recent, from December last year. Not from a cache finding trip, though I was checking out possible places for a hide. I don't have any decent photography equipment of my own, just my phone cam. So include or not this photo as you please But it is one to start the thread off. I'll admit that bokeh was a new word to me, so I had to look it up. But this quick snap of these little fun guys seemed to fit the description. Taken along a disused railway route between Thames Path - The Three Rs, Kemble and Sidetracked - Kemble 2.

Taken near GC28Q1D, now archived. I don't think that was a 35mm can it was chewing, but can't be sure

Yes, that would of been helpful of me, sorry. Here are a couple: Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate Earnanæs, þæs wyrmes denn

Definitely would second those to go onto the list, plus there are a few other caches by another CO in the vicinity of those that I would put on the list too.

Happy New year everyone

My local reviewer need not fear Christmas day work from me. I have a peach jar now, but it's far from ready for hiding. It's sat staring at me still full of peaches.

Simply http://www.ukcachemag.com/. I have read one previous edition which was interesting and well put together.